Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Project, for example, are using community mapping to develop a Greenways Plan for
the city. Through this project, racialized people have access to an “inclusive and
graphic framework for people to affirm and pool their experiences and knowledge
about their home place” (Common Ground Community Mapping Project 2008). In-
corporating community mapping and other alternative public engagement tech-
niques into urban ecological restoration projects could shift the power balance, allow-
ing for both experts and community members to contribute to designing local green
space (see CUP. 21).
Examining and understanding why some people are not participating in urban
ecological restoration can lead toward the establishment of more inclusive practices.
As mentioned earlier, a deep-seated mythology within the Canadian environmental
community portrays new Canadians as being disinterested in urban ecological resto-
ration and other environment-related issues (Gosine 2003). A more inclusive urban
ecological restoration framework needs to work with the alternative proposal that
all
people have significant concerns about the environment (Jones and Rainey 2006;
Ramos, pers. comm.) in order to reveal the true and hidden reasons for lack of in-
volvement. If an organization works under the assumption that there is chronic disin-
terest from racialized people, its strategies will be aimed at increasing interest and ed-
ucating populations about the importance of urban ecological restoration rather than
working with racialized people to remove barriers to participation.
One barrier to participation that was identified through this study was ecological
restoration organizations' reliance on volunteerism. Volunteering is the backbone of
urban ecological restoration and, admittedly, is an important source of labor for on-
the-ground restoration work. However, as mentioned earlier, much smaller numbers
of racialized people volunteer in ecological restoration projects than in other areas,
such as the arts. Krauter hypothesized that the reason may be that not everyone has
the resources to commit the time and energy to volunteer for projects as labor and
time intensive as those in urban ecological restoration (Kelly Krauter, pers. comm.).
Papillon (2003) also claims that it can be challenging for new immigrants, even those
with ecological restoration or kindred experience, to share their skills and valuable ex-
periences because they are also pursuing networking and skill-building opportunities.
To encourage more involvement, volunteer organizations can offer something that
new immigrants may find useful, something that will help them get ahead. For exam-
ple, according to Ramos (2005), providing education and networking opportunities to
volunteers is an incentive for more people from diverse populations to become in-
volved in ecological restoration work.
Social Justice in Restoration Work
A study of urban ecological restoration in New Zealand by Kilvington and colleagues
(1998) revealed that green social stratification is occurring within cities and that
racialized people have less access to local green spaces and therefore urban ecologi-
cal restoration projects. From interviews I conducted with members of the Toronto
Regional Conservation Authority (TRCA) and the Parks, Forestry and Recreation
